Origin

The jar that is a shock is late Middle English and is probably meant to be imitative. It was first used in the sense ‘disagreement, dispute’. The jar you put things in dates from the late 16th century and comes via French from Arabic jarra ‘earthen water vessel’. It has been used to mean a drink of beer since the 1920s.

Origin

The jar that is a shock is late Middle English and is probably meant to be imitative. It was first used in the sense ‘disagreement, dispute’. The jar you put things in dates from the late 16th century and comes via French from Arabic jarra ‘earthen water vessel’. It has been used to mean a drink of beer since the 1920s.

noun

They locked the body of the deceased in a box on the fourth day after the murder, and, having left the garret door open and the street door on the jar, one of the apprentices was told to call Nanny down to dinner, and to tell her that, if she promised to behave well in future, she would be no longer confined.

The door was on the jar. I mounted the steps, that is as well as my trembling knees would allow, clutching at the balustrade between my swoonings.

Origin

Late 17th century: later form of obsolete char 'turn' (see also ajar1 and charwoman).

The jar that is a shock is late Middle English and is probably meant to be imitative. It was first used in the sense ‘disagreement, dispute’. The jar you put things in dates from the late 16th century and comes via French from Arabic jarra ‘earthen water vessel’. It has been used to mean a drink of beer since the 1920s.